Florida Airport Evacuated After Frontier Airlines Passenger Makes Bomb Threat – Live and Let’s Fly

Hundreds of passengers at West Palm Beach were forced to evacuate a terminal concourse after a Frontier Airlines passenger made a bomb threat.

Frontier Airlines Bomb Threat In West Palm Beach, Florida

The incident occurred on Tuesday evening onboard an aircraft parked in Concourse C of Palm Beach International Airport (PBI). For reasons that remain unclear, a man announced that he had a bomb in his bag after boarding. He was traveling on Frontier Airlines flight 2346 to Philadelphia (PHL).

Airport authorities were summoned and the aircraft was evacuated. Meanwhile, passengers traveling to other destinations were immediately moved out of the concourse. The bomb squad and the FBI arrived and the man’s two carry-on bags were checked. No explosives were found, but the man was arrested. The terminal area remained evacuated for roughly 90 minutes, delaying six flights.

The flight to Philadelphia was ultimately delayed for 17 hours and will shortly depart this morning:

Frontier Airlines did not comment on the incident.

Unintended Consequences

An airplane can easily become a vector of discontent when sharing close quarters with strangers.

This is especially true on Frontier Airlines, which packs in passengers with tight-seating and charges extra to bring hand baggage onboard as part of its ultra-low-cost business model.

But this incident reminds us yet again that using the word bomb, even in jest (and that may not be the case here), is never appropriate.

In a world in which bombs are an existential threat to life and limb, the

And even though this man had just passed through a TSA security screening with his bags, officials and airlines will always err on the side of caution. Better for a flight to be delayed or terminal to be evacuated than a threat not to be taken seriously and a bomb to go off.

If someone really wanted to disrupt the airline system, calling in bomb threats for dozens of flights a day would certainly do the trick. These sorts of threats cannot be ignored: it is too risky.

CONCLUSION

A Frontier Airlines flight was delayed for 17 hours and a terminal was partially evacuated after a passenger made a bomb threat onboard. I hope that Frontier Airlines send the passenger a bill for every penny the ensuing flight delay cost, including damages that compensate passengers for their time lost.

image: Frontier Airlines